Thoughts on prison system and increases in crime: The Ecuadorian Case

Reflexiones sobre el sistema penitenciario y el aumento de la delincuencia: El Caso Ecuatoriano

Frank Steven Sosa Gangotena* fsosa@gmail.com

Independent legal researcher, Ecuador

Esta obra está bajo una Licencia Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial 4.0 Internacional.

The penitentiary system involves several elements for its composition. These can reflexively show similarity with the government structure itself since they consist of a human element (guards, authorities, and prison population), a territorial element (all social rehabilitation centres are located in physical space), and respect and recognition for subjective decisions--which in a State is expressed through sovereignty.

Thus, a reflection would allow prisons to be analyzed as sub-countries: as sub-states that handle their own rules and obey their authorities. They have a type of exit-only visa, which is not always sufficient to reenter a society that continued its course during the time that prisoners remained socially immobilized. At times, little by little take away the prisoner’s desire to favour the same society and leads to drugs and problems.

The basis for the reflective research work offered comes from various legal academic contributions that contain inputs in the form of interviews and surveys of the Ecuadorian prison system. Although similar bibliography has also been consulted in other countries, such as Spain and Argentina, the basis for this critical review is located on several studies by Santiago R. Argüello, a researcher on prison policy from the human rights perspective who also has a relevant professional career in the Prosecutor’s Office. Also used were investigations by the renowned Guayaquil criminal lawyer Alfonso Zambrano Pasquel, who has directed several studies on prisons in Ecuador, with data obtained from interviews and direct personal contact. The prisoners’ opinions and the climate of the penitentiary centres that underlie the criminal policy analysis provided herein will not be quoted in detail but somewhat abstracted from their judgments.

It is easy to think of current activities and situations that limit people’s freedom. The democratic constitutional State does not usually tolerate any public intervention in that freedom, other than those corresponding to existing criminal laws’ transgressions. To complete this statement, we must remember that actions classified as illegal, although having immediate consequences, do not per se imply a sentence or a direct deprivation of the person’s freedom. Neither is it the case that those who pay are always guilty or responsible for the infraction. Some are only in the wrong place and at the wrong time. It should also be noted that, within Ecuadorian social rehabilitation centres, there are still those sentenced to the court: drug addicts, recidivists of minor crimes, and even the mentally ill. For one reason or another, these are people who cannot reintegrate into society either by choice or condition.

These behaviours are associated with need: that is, inequitable access to wealth and a lack of employment, which in turn leads to an illegal way of acquiring income. One may even think that a criminal is a victim of a system that leaves them disaffected and disadvantaged, “but the disproportion in wealth distribution is a criminogenic factor, which must be ascertained to understand if, in countries that increase their economic prosperity, social justice also increases” (Zambrano, 2009, p. 13). It is not always the case: if economic prosperity does not go hand in hand with education and a culture of values, the society condemns itself to continue suffering injustices and tolerating social inequalities.

Professor Luis Rodríguez Manzanera reminds us that the environment alone is not capable of producing crime. Instead, Rodríguez (n. d.) qualifies the environment as an accomplice and the criminal as the microbe that will develop and evolve in the breeding ground. He also states that the environment includes work, police, vagrancy, begging, and urban planning (cited by Zambrano, 2009, p. 16).

To these two elements, on which we will reflect next, two more must be added: the lack of education and the free consumption of drugs.

All the mentioned elements form a seed of evil that complements itself. Labour activities must be started from an early age, and this has a terrible impact on the children, who must engage in activities that are restricted for others, such as street cigarette sales, whose purchase by minors is prohibited.

For adults, the increase in underemployment as a measure to combat unemployment is ineffective. Those who carry out this type of activity risk the dangers of the street, hostility from those already involved in crime, the disinterest of many, and the desperation of seeing their need to maintain and feed a family go unmet (INEC, 2019, pp. 6-10).

This desperation leads projects to be undertaken in places that are prohibited and without permission, thus invoking the second element’s intervention: the police. In this role, the police perform a job directly dependent on the authorities’ instructions to comply with and enforce laws (at least in theory). However, the effect is that social resentment is created or aggravated. Later this will strengthen and worsen, and authority and its agents are generally viewed as an enemy acting abusively and unfairly against those who seek to harm no one. It could be classified as a critical criminogenic element that will later make up the criminal’s psychological profile.

For Zambrano (2009), vagrancy and begging go hand in hand, and while genetic or even psychopathological factors may determine them, they begin as parasocial or asocial activities and end up turning into antisocial practices (p. 257269). This element -authority- undergoes an unfortunate evolution. Begging involves asking for money from passersby, various acts at traffic light stops, such as windshield-cleaning service, or displaying handicaps to cause pity. These activities are thus integrated by various young people, which sometimes culminates in criminal gangs.

The formation of gangs is not bad in and of itself. The problem is triggered when the feeling of belonging to the group overrides any other social norm. In some cases, gangs become another person to defend, even on the coast of other lives. In Ecuador, the “Latin Kings” and the “Vatos Locos” clash violently and cause numerous deaths. If analyzed, these struggles are not only due to identity and certain patriotic feelings. Instead, in their world, whoever is positioned over the other gangs gains fame and respect; and, still more pernicious, gains the interest of drug traffickers and organized crime to be hired as a militia-granting them power, weapons, and money. This, in turn, causes young people who are not aware of where they are getting into to be seduced. Such was the case of the Nicaraguan gang MC13.

The third element considered is the “urbanism paradox”, defined as consisting of two parts: migration and precariousness, as understood by the author who guides us, Rodríguez Manzanero (Zambrano, 2009, p. 16). Migration implies an imbalance because those who move in search of better opportunities contribute to overpopulation in the destination territory and leave a demographic gap in the territory from which they come. These actions have serious consequences: overcrowding in shelters, debts with the so-called chicks, invasions of constructions, and indigence. Since the border was opened in Ecuador’s case, the migration of Colombians and Venezuelans has increased the crime problem. This is mainly because criminal records are not reviewed and because it is a large group in a situation of extreme precariousness, fleeing from hunger, poverty, and, in the Venezuelan case, political repression. In Ecuador, this causes mixed feelings of fear and social rejection.

Along with these three elements, the lack of education-which limits opportunities for progress-- should not be ignored. Children and young people who are not in school will be in the streets. There is a higher risk of falling into criminal networks in this scenario and ending up devoured by the prison system. Children are easy targets for such activities. It is sometimes even conscientiously: as in the case of drug traffickers who began their criminal life in childhood when, in search of a better life, they saw that life outside the law paid very well.

Drug intake does not correspond solely to the consumption of marijuana or cocaine. The sale of alcohol and cigarettes to minors lacking a stable home or recreational activities facilitates their early introduction to these practices. This element is related to property-related crimes, whether to consume or sell or exchange. Changes then gradually occur in the type of drugs consumed and crimes committed to obtaining resources to get hold of those drugs. This is an important factor preventing a prisoner’s reinsertion unless it is by their own will.

Another factor that causes coexistence to be broken is the alterations suffered by people with mental illnesses. Technically their acts cannot be qualified as crimes because the authors are imputable due to their mental condition. Their condition poses problems that society does not always know how to resolve. Foucault (1976, pp. 110-287) studied how those suffering from illnesses and causing problems were kept. In Ecuador, psychiatric centres have assumed this task, such as the “Lorenzo Ponce” hospital in Guayaquil and Quito’s mental asylum.

However, there are many cases of criminals in which their lack of imputability created situations with significant social impact. This happened with Pedro Alonso López, “The Monster of the Andes,” who was extradited from the penitentiary to a psychiatric centre, only to go free after four years based on his presumed recovery. He went on to continue committing crimes until he was once again imprisoned (Jácome, 2005, p. 76-78). Social rehabilitation starts with the idea that a person who has broken the laws of social coexistence must comply with a time of separation and return to society renewed and with new horizons. The social problem is dangerous when there are prisoners who know no life other than prison, to the point that, while they could regain their freedom, it is no longer of interest to them.

Theoretically, only the courts, following a procedure, can legally incarcerate someone. Several factors, such as those that we have already seen, are not only criminogenic but also create an apparent awareness of uprooting. This seems to encourage dangerous feelings of abandonment, having nothing to lose and much to gain, or social resentment. While it is understood that people deprived of liberty (PDL) begin said condition when they enter prison, they often have a self-understanding of not having enjoyed freedom beforehand.

We must situate the prison in the formation of this surveillance society. The modern penitentiary system no longer claims that it punishes crimes: it seeks to readjust delinquents. Under the knowledge of men and the humanity of punishments lies inevitable disciplinary domination of bodies, a mixed form of submission and objectification, a “power-knowledge”. (Foucault, 1976, p. 236)

A little more than a century and a half ago, the first Ecuadorian social rehabilitation centre for men was founded in Quito. It was named “García Moreno” Prison in honour of its founder, who established it as part of the modernizing policies he undertook during his presidency. From then until 2014, its cells lodged thousands of people. Nevertheless, at last, the precarious situation led to a state of emergency that forced its doors to be definitively closed. As a replacement, a new project was designed with a social rehabilitation centre in the country, located on the outskirts of Latacunga, a maximumsecurity prison in Guayaquil, and, territorially distinct, the Southern District Center located in Turi. It was done with the idea of redistributing the prisoners and rebuilding a system that remained rotten until a decade ago.

The relocation of the prison population was significant for several reasons: the abandonment prisoners experience when it becomes difficult for their relatives to access the new prisons, far from towns and cities. Furthermore:

The new punitive regime had a profound impact on the female support networks of the criminalised population. It contributed to the neoliberal dynamics of the reproduction of crime through the legal punishment of women mothers identified as offenders and the extralegal criminalisation of women heads of extended families who, among other members, take care of prisoners. Before and after this period of government, women confronted adversity in concrete ways: in a binding, immediate, adaptive, and creative way. A collective social movement, multiple, as resistant as it is silent, must be recognised to build a public sphere that is authentically antagonistic to patriarchal capitalism. (Aguirre et al., 2020, p. 106)

It represents an additional expense, and the psychological impact on the convict, which is left with hardly any contacts other than fellow prisoners in the centre and the violence experienced there. The prisoners’ psychological consequences are that they begin to believe that they are losing what little he had left, that the struggle to leave is useless, and that he has nowhere to go. A former convict confessed that this situation leads to bad decisions and diminishes the desire for repentance and to do things right (Moreno and Bueno-Guerra, 2018, p. 2).

Along with abandonment, there is another problem of a more social nature. This is that prisoners become isolated from reality. In other words, moving the prisoners to the city outskirts - in the cases of Turi, Latacunga, Guayaquil, and many others - to avoid tragedies if the system fails is achieved at a very high cost. This cost is related to reintegration due to the difficulty implied by spending time disconnected from reality. Once they have completed their sentence, what prisoners find is a reality hostilely foreign to their memory, their knowledge, and consciousness, which creates frustration and even fear. (Manzanos, 1998, p. 64-70)

The purpose of these new prisons’ construction and operation is to restructure the precarious penitentiary system and eliminate corruption. Indeed, this is a difficult task without proper guidance. Besides, we must not forget that this system is maintained based on a discipline regime: necessary, in principle, but, in practice, this system often fuels a sense of rejection of authority and order. This situation is propitiated by coercive methods, mediated by fear and conditioning, to which the correctional officers are no strangers. Prohibited acts thus occur, as evidenced in audiovisual materials and testimonies from prisoners in the Turi Prison.

Quinatoa (2017) mentioned:

In the field of rehabilitation, programs aim to reduce recidivism by adopting effective social reintegration mechanisms. Initiatives, properly designed and implemented, can provide stability and order within prisons. (p. 126)

In the field of rehabilitation, programs aim to reduce recidivism by adopting effective social reintegration mechanisms. Initiatives, properly designed and implemented, can provide stability and order within prisons. (p. 126)

Prisons are thought of and conceived as power structures that traditionally surpass or ignore the existence of human rights. Education and work have been proposed to remedy this reality and distract the prisoner from their confinement while learning technical activities or completing studies for personal satisfaction and fulfillment. Thanks to these voluntary recreational activities offered to the prisoners, the prisoner feels motivated to regenerate and escape the violence and corruption inside the rehabilitation centres. In the following, we will see what these activities consist of and consider whether their operation is correct; or if opportunities must still be earned through corruption and abuse of authority by correctional officers.

For Foucault (1976, p. 114-115), prisoners immersed in solitude reflect criminal actions and punishment. Only living the sanctions for their crime prisoners learn to hate them. If their soul is not yet ravaged by evil, remorse will come to assault them while in isolation. The criminal’s re-adaptation is not requested under the exercise of common law; but rather by the individual’s relationship with his conscience and with that which can illuminate them from within (UNODC, 2013, p. 43).

A sentence of fifteen or twenty-five years is a significant blow to a person. If not able to focus correctly, the person can be drawn to adverse decisions.

In their testimonies, prisoners have recognized that good therapy is the first thing they needed. The first help that someone condemned to prison should receive allows them to accept their reality best to strengthen their structure and remember that all is not lost. Although the years may seem endless, productive activities, visits from loved ones, and constant psychological support can help reform the prisoner’s personality which is continuously emphasized by modern criminal law: achieving reintegration, rather than an ongoing sense of resentment and revenge.

There is an atmosphere of violence in detention centres, and both prisoners and custodians cause it. Also, there are specific environments of camaraderie.

However, drug trafficking inside the prison negatively conditions the social reintegration of addicts to drugs. Prisoners do not receive adequate treatment and thus continue to move deeper into criminal activities: they can rob, kill and prostitute themselves to obtain drugs, which is their only means of forgetting their reality and, in cases of addiction, combating withdrawal syndromes.

Until the new penitentiary plan, there was no distinction between the prisoners’ crimes, behaviour, or aggressiveness. In this way, the entire center’s security was affected. Cells for all types of crimes are shared, whether against the Public Treasury, against life, or private property.

The lack of education reduces opportunities for people to perform lawful activities when they leave prison or opt for self-improvement. It motivates criminal activities. Also, it prevents them from visualizing the real impact of their actions, and an environment conducive to crime is formed. It is offered as a response to coercion and the consequent perspective of authority as an enemy.

Violence is daily inside prisons. It is part of the center’s shared culture, although it allows for a gradation. Violence by guards is especially severe because they rely on their authority, and control over everything, and, even in the opinion of former convicts, they present themselves above everyone else and violate prisoners’ rights. The caporales, the most respected prisoners and representatives of the prison community, exercise repressive violence to maintain their power over prisoners. Finally, there are continuous fights over the most varied issues among the common criminals, killing for hire, and the extortion requested by the other groups mentioned.

Drug trafficking and extortion exist and operate within prison centers. However, they occur differently in each space.

For example, in pretrial detention centres, extortion is the most popular business since there is money there. For a loan of 1 or 2 dollars between prisoners, a quota of up to 50 to 70 dollars can be charged. Drug trafficking occurs more easily inside the jails since that is where it is possible to draw in the prisoners so that, unable to pay their debts, he “works” at the creditor’s orders, carrying out murders or robberies.

Now of reinsertion, the house of trust is instituted to ease into life on the outside. At least tendentially, the teaching received in workshops and the opportunities to pursue a university career are also facilitated. Without a doubt, this opens various doors. Today, prisoners can even carry out entrepreneurship projects inside the center and continue these as challenging and remunerated jobs once they are freed. Together with the social participation in prison work, this is an excellent opportunity to find new meaning in society and a dignified way of living, away from crime, drugs, and penitentiary centres.

https://www.revistarfjpuce.edu.ec/index.php/rfj/article/view/393/237 (pdf)